When Corey LaJoie finished P4 at the Daytona season opener, many fans believed 2024 would finally signal the #7 driver’s breakthrough year. Yet, each race weekend results in quite the contrary narrative for LaJoie. And New Hampshire was no different at all.

At 32, Spire Motorsports’ ‘senior statesman’ has made quite the name for himself in his 10th year maneuvering the difficulties of NASCAR’s premier series. But is his notoriety only evident due to an off-track podcast and not his on-track antics in the #7 Chevy? After a day to forget at Loudon, the fans are tearing down on that sentiment way worse than the two-hour rain delay on Sunday.

Corey LaJoie stuck in mediocrity despite Daytona 500 promise

Halfway through, this season certainly hasn’t been a breakthrough for Corey LaJoie, instead, it has been a nightmare. Currently sandwiched at 29th between Ryan Preece and Justin Haley in the points table, it is safe to say LaJoie will not be making the playoffs unless he manages to pull out a win (what would be his first-ever) in the next 8 races of the regular season. 

From an expecting perspective, that seems unlikely. Especially considering Corey’s performance, equipment or some would even call it luck, just has not favored his advances in recent regard. Apart from the promising top 5 at the Daytona 500, LaJoie’s most memorable highlight this season has been crossing the finish line at Talladega sideways in P18 after a last-lap “big one.” 

But that is just one recorded instance of the North Carolina native’s 2024 misfortunes. A closer look at his results this season will reveal that he has registered a solitary DNF so far, back in March at Phoenix. However, his best finish since then has been a P11 at the Sonoma road race earlier this month. He is currently averaging a 23.33 finishing position across the first eighteen races of the season. Ironically, LaJoie’s starts haven’t been all that better either, boasting a meager 23.5 average. He may have rolled off the grid three spots below in P26 for the USA Today 301 but maintained his 2024 averages by finishing P23 when all the rain had dried up in New Hampshire. 

The bigger story surrounding the #7 team, on the other hand? Three different incidents on two different track conditions. First, LaJoie spun on the backstretch to bring out the sixth caution of the race before rains and a tornado warning threatened a red flag over NASCAR’s annual return to New Hampshire. Then LaJoie mysteriously spun again under the same caution that ended fellow troubled Camaro driver, Kyle Busch’s day after crashing into the outside wall on turn 2.

Finally, the #7 Spire car brought out the 10th yellow of the race after an incident on the same turn with 45 laps to go. Nevertheless, none of these incidents would be intense enough to take away his contender spirit, as he finished his race bent but not broken with another top-25 finish.  As it all unfolds for Corey LaJoie, he is the only current active driver without a race win in any of the Top-3 National Touring Series.

Even his teammates, 21-year-old Carson Hocevar and Trackhouse loanee Zane Smith, have either Xfinity or Truck Series wins credited to their names. This sheds quite a negative light on LaJoie’s position in the third Spire Motorsports car. And the fans are not exactly throwing graces or prayers toward a multi-venture driver only staking his claim as yet, another second-generation NASCAR driver pursuing full-time glory.

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Corey Lajoie’s father, Randy is a former two-time, consecutive Busch Series champion. The 62-year-old has also been named one of the 75 Greatest NASCAR Drivers. When Randy LaJoie won his first-ever second-tier championship, he was well in his mid-to-late thirties, and in contrast, Corey has all but a few years to match up to his father’s impressive accolades. At least, he has surpassed his father as a 21st-century podcast host on Stacking Pennies, right? Looks like the fans heavily disagree.

On the most recent New Hampshire race thread gracing the NASCAR subreddit, fans were not holding back from voicing their opinions against Corey LaJoie, with one even going as far as to state, “Lajoie doesn’t deserve a job or podcast. Stacking Excuses!!!” Another piled on the hurt by referring to the “Stacking Pennies” podcast and parodically terming LaJoie’s overall performance at Loudon:  “Stacking spinnies.” Others opined that “Lajoie could take some notes from KFB,” the other Chevy driver who also could not catch a break on Sunday, and suffered three incidents. 

Many distasteful comments emerged like “Corey ran out of what little talent he had” to some straight-up demanding that Corey “Go home” after his display in The Granite State. Although the hate train is running full speed towards the Corey LaJoie parade in 2024,  it is only so because the fans have come to expect the next big wreck to typically involve the #7 car at the end of most replays. More often than not fans are left saying: “Oh, it’s Corey again,” when the dust settles on that next big caution. Can he prove his haters wrong like he should before the playoffs transition these negative narratives over to the next season? Let us know your views below!